Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Progress...finally!

So I've said before how we have been trying to teach Elliott some baby sign language and how the results had been slow going. For a while I had to interpret banging on the table and waving while saying DA! for everything, and I was starting to get skeptical that we were going to have any success at all communicating with Elliott.

Three weeks ago I decided to tag along with my friend Leonore and her son, Jaafar, to check out the infant signing class. If nothing else, I could ask the lady what to do about all of the banging my table was quietly suffering through. So we went, and I asked lots of questions. She told me to encourage him when he used his hands, but continue to show the correct signs. She showed us how to sign on books, or on toys, and get his attention to incorporate signs better. I left feeling pretty good, and determined that we would get this thing.

That night, I fed Elliott dinner, and when I asked him if he wanted more, he slammed his hands on the high chair tray like usual. So I showed him the right sign with his own hands, and then with mine, and asked him to show me more by tapping on his hands. And what do you know? He did it. VICTORY!

So we started to work in other signs. He repeats some of them, and others he ignores or grunts instead of using them. But he's totally catching on! Last week the teacher told us to sign "Stop" instead of saying no all the time, because they start to tune out no if it is all they hear. So after Elliott threw his lunch on the floor for the fifth time, I signed and said "STOP". And he tried to make the sign, and actually said Stop! Well, Stah! That counts though. Don't tell me it doesn't. IT DOES.

So now, we have 6 or 7 signs he will make fairly consistently. The signs for bedtime, more, brush teeth, eat, and diaper change. Mostly he will only do them with some prompting, but it's pretty exciting to watch. And maybe now I won't have to try to translate grunts.